Call for Presentations: Digital Access Research Forum

Are you a graduate student, multidisciplinary academic, policy analyst or practitioner studying or conducting research related to digital access? The Digital Access Research Forum organizing committee is currently seeking presentation proposals for the 2025 Digital Access Research Forum. The forums main objectives include assessing the state of existing research on digital access, identifying gaps and needs for future research, enabling community development practitioners and policymakers to use the research and develop practical applications, and creating a space for digital access researchers, practitioners and policymakers to connect and learn from each other.

The forum will accept high-quality presentations from a wide range of topics, methods, disciplines and perspectives. Research areas of particular interest include but are not limited to:

• Qualitative research design and data use in digital access research.
• Geographic comparisons of broadband and digital access.
• The changing nature of the digital access landscape and its labor market implications, such as the role of digital skills in workforce development, entrepreneurship and small business growth, and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
• Innovative practices and methodologies in accurately measuring access, affordability and adoption of broadband and digital technologies.
• The role of community development practitioners and policymakers in creating measurable best practices in broadband policy and deployment.
• Fundamentals of data collection, data availability and using existing data.
• Qualitative research design and data use in digital access research.

Proposals will be accepted between February 19 and March 14, 2025. Proposals should be no longer than 750 words and include motivation behind the research, data sources and methodology (if an empirical study), and a description of expected research findings and policy implications.

The Digital Access Research Forum organizing committee will notify authors of accepted presentations in April.

For questions, contact merissa.piazza@clev.frb.org and theresa.dunne@phil.frb.org.

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